Australia Expat Forum - Best neighborhoods in Sydney

My husband and I are thinking of relocating to Sydney this year. We have been assured that jobs will not be a problem. We will probably be visiting Sydney in July for interviews. In doing research, however, we are finding it hard to figure out typical housing costs, as we don't know which areas/suburbs to look in. Most of what we see online are super-expensive downtown harbour-view highrises. We want to be reasonably central, but we have a 4-month-old baby so we would like to live in a nice neighborhood. Are their any particularly nice or not-so-nice areas? Are there any online resources we can use? Thank you for any advice or information you can offer.

I would take a look at Seaforth which is on the Northern beaches across the Harbour Bridge and the Spit Bridge. About 30 minutes by car and bus from the financial district, a walk to good beaches and some restaurants and shops. But you will need a car to live here. It will be a good place to find a small house with a garden which will be good for your young child. I am a little out of touch with rentals but I would guess that for circa Oz 1500/month you would get something nice. If you enjoy sailing it's a great spot too. Enjoy all that Sydney has to offer.

We lived in Sydney for 12 yrs before moving to Seoul as an expat. We have 3 young children and enjoyed the Northern beaches suburbs eg. Forestville, Frenchs Forest, Killarney Hts. These are all well serviced by schools, medical facilities, major shopping complexes such as Warringah Mall and Chatswood and provide good access to the city. There is a private bus company that services these areas or you can go by bus to Chatswood and then train to the city. These restaurants are close to the beaches of Dee Why, Manly and lots of restaurants. A very nice area for raising chilldren and having pets.

For a good web resource to help work out where to live, try www.domain.com.au. As well as rental and purchase prices, it has a great feature called 'suburb snapshot', where you can find out about a suburb's demograhic profile.That said, there really aren't any "bad" areas within a 20km radius of the CBD, so your choice will come down to a number of lifestyle factors. If you want to live near the harbour and the CBD, choose somewhere like Neutral Bay (lots of expats, restaurants and apartments), Hunters Hill, Woolwich and others. If you want the beach, have a look at Manly. Families tend to settle on the 'North Shore', and anywhere along the rail line is a pretty good bet (especially if you work north of the harbour). Try Artamon, Chatswood, Roseville, Lindfield, Killara, Pymble, Turramurra, Waitara or Hornsby. There are some nice places south of the harbour too (such as Rose Bay, Double Bay, Bondi, Cronulla and Miranda) and the 'inner west' has become very trendy (Newtown, Leichardt etc). For an online map, go to www.whereis.com.au.By the way, we live in West Pymble, about 15kms north of the harbour, and we like it a lot.I hope this helps.Andy